Success of Ambition24hours
The Success of Ambition24hours was inspired by a game changing idea Penny Streeter had. Penny Streeter OBE is the founder and of the A24 Group, a medical staffing agency that she founded with her mother in 1996. Facing many challenges along the way, this was not an easy journey.
Born in Zimbabwe in 1967, Penny Streeter left Zimbabwe in 1979 and was educated at Alberton High in Johannesburg until 1983. She left South Africa for the UK at the age of 12 with her mother Marion. She started work in the recruitment sector after leaving school at age 15.
In 1989 Penny Streeter launched her own recruitment business: it failed and she also divorced, which left her homeless and penniless, finding refuge in homeless accommodation with her three young children. After some years working in other people's recruitment businesses, Streeter tried again in 1995 with a new venture, funded by evenings moonlighting as a children's party entertainer.
24-Hour Ambition; a recipe for Success
The A24 Group staffing agency was launched in 1996. A24 Group is a temporary staffing agency that fulfils the need of a 24-hour staffing service in the nursing sector. Following rapid growth, over the next decade the company expanded the service to cover locum doctors, allied health professionals, carers, social workers and teachers/lecturers.
In 2004, A24Group expanded into South Africa, with ‘back office’ facilities for the UK and SA markets. It also launched an £11 million, three-year investment plan in South Africa, based from 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2) freehold premises acquired in Cape Town along with initialising SA locum and nursing agency services.
In 2006, the company made its first major acquisition: that of South African agency NSSA (Nursing Services of South Africa), the largest provider of temporary nursing personnel in the country, supplying over 3,000 staff each month.
In 2009, Nursing Services of the UK and Ambition24hours Locums UK, divisions of NS Health Staffing, was launched. Today A24 Group is a multi-million-dollar medical staff recruitment and management organisation operating with multiple brands in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Streeter's company has interviewers based nationally throughout the UK and South Africa and employs over 300 office staff across the world, with 27,500 personnel on its books - locum doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, care assistants, teachers and social workers for major institutional service providers throughout the UK and South Africa.
Today, the A24Group places over 100,000 hours of healthcare professionals weekly, operating on two continents, with a complement of over 350 recruiters and over 20,000 healthcare professionals. The group looks forward to a future of further opportunity and growth, in support of clients, candidates and patients.
Awards
Business Woman of the Year, South African Chamber of Commerce Awards, 2019
OBE (Order of the British Empire) 2006 New Year's Honours for ‘services to enterprise’
CBI (Confederation of British Industry) Entrepreneur of the Year, 2003
'Management Today' magazine, Top 100 Entrepreneurs: Top woman, and No. 13 overall for two years, 2003, 2004
Fast Track 100 ‘Fastest Growing UK Companies’ 2004, 2003, 2002 - No.1 in 2002
